According to the dictionary, Bonnie means “fine, attractive, pretty”.  It is from the Scottish, which may have come from the French “bonne”, meaning “good”.  A nursery rhyme says that “the child who is born on the Sabbath Day is bonny and blithe and good and gay”.  I do not know if our Bonnie was born on the Sabbath Day, but during the whole time that I knew her, it seemed appropriate that she be considered a child of the Sabbath.

She was very attractive to me, because of her great love for the Lord and for his people.  She was beautiful to me, because of her winsome enjoyment of the life that God had given her.  She was good not in herself, but because of the goodness of Christ, her beloved Savior.

Bonnie was an example to me of satisfaction and enjoyment in the Lord.  Yes, she had her hard times.  Yes, she was a weak sinner, but she was an overcomer in Christ her Lord and a great lover of her family and friends.  She never let her hardship keep her from worshiping with her church family, if possible.

She laughed and frolicked with me in the woods of her beloved farm.  She loved to play, sing, and dance.  Bonnie, my beloved friend, was the epitome of what a lover of Christ should be.  A lover of all creation.  A lover of mankind as made in the image of Christ.  A prayer warrior who stood on the Solid Rock and believed with all her being.

Oh, how I miss her and have missed her ever since I left Ohio in March.  Oh, that I could be like her.

Thank you, Lord, for Bonnie.

---

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

— Proverbs 31:30

Fathers are such valuable people, it is hard to express it. I had a good one and he has been a wonderful influence on his children. He still is. He is creative, funny, and strong. I’m so glad he is mine. I love you, Dad.

---

This afternoon, after church, we were getting ready to go over and see Mamoo and take her over to see Papoo. I was eating lunch and got the urge to write a poem. I got a sheet of paper and a pencil and the following poem happened:

Papoo

Quiet, strong, hard-working man,

Thinking, laughing, loving his own.

Up from poverty and discouraging toil,

Never was he heard to moan.

He spied the love of his life

Across the noisy, crowded room.

He pledged his life to her;

A life woven on a simple loom.

This man was a career sailor

Who often traveled far and wide,

Returning weary from his journeys,

Safely to his beloved’s side.

The children for whom he thoughfully cared

Are certainly blessed to call him Dad.

And, as for a father-in-law and friend,

He is the finest I have ever had.

---

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

— Psalm 103:13

This is a charcoal that I quickly did sort of like eating sorbet between courses to cleanse the palate. I needed to do something to cleanse my mind of the portrait of Mr. K. I think I need to cleanse my mind between all of my portraits. After Mr. K., I immediately plunged into another portrait, but it wasn’t working, so I decided to do this horse. Even though it is only “sorbet”, I like it. LOL!

Yesterday, it was very rainy and stormy. It didn’t really get going until we were in the grocery store shopping for Mamoo (Mr. Beloved’s mother). We got soaked. It was not raining when we dropped off the groceries. It rained again as we were taking Mamoo out for supper. We need the rain and am very glad for it, but it is so funny that it only rained really hard when we were trying to get in or out of buildings. This weekend is a community yard sale in our neighborhood. We have one every quarter. We will be ready for the next one, in September.

By the way, for all you Mount Vernon people who read this: The Leesburg high school mascot is the yellow jackets! LOL! There is a Yellow Jacket Way road that goes into the high school campus and the logo looks exactly the same as Mount Vernon’s. I had to laugh out loud when I saw that! That is just too funny! I want to get some photos, but I don’t think about it unless we are passing it on the road. Now, how nifty is that? Leesburg High School link.

A horse is dangerous at both ends and uncomfortable in the middle. — Ian Fleming

I have finally gotten my studio up and running. It is much smaller, but I think I can do it. If you have the desire, you can do art anywhere, right? When we were packing up the studio in Ohio, we picked up my drawing table and proceeded to fold it up and it fell apart. LOL! It came apart at almost all of the seams/welds. I immediately began trying to fix it, but then I realized that it was not fixable and that I would have to get rid of it and eventually get a new one. I got one just last week:

My studio is a small Florida room. The light is wonderful, but it is a little much at times, so I taped up the window with an old sheet. We will have to have an air conditioner put in the wall, also. It gets oven-like in no time, plus the humidity is a little much. This morning I sat down at my drawing table and the paper was warped and floppy from the moisture. But, so what!? I am back in business! Yay!

I did my first portrait in about six months (I don’t know exactly how long it has been…) and I promised Mr. K. that it would be him. Here is the initial sketch:

And here is the finished portrait:

This is a photo from a shoot that we had as we were packing up. I didn’t want to leave without getting some shots of this wonderful face. I wish I had spent more time taking photos of all the people I wanted. So many faces, so little time… LOL! (If you recognize him, please let me know. I am so insecure! LOL!)

I have started another sketchbook. I am going to start teaching art classes at my local art supply store and I want to do some sketches for teaching purposes. This first page is “blind” contour drawing. That is when you put your pencil on the paper, look at the object that you are drawing, do not take your eyes from the object, and draw without looking at the paper. Do not lift the pencil from the page until you are done. These drawings are not supposed to be recognizable. They are exercises for your mind and your eye. Artists need to train their eyes to see what is there, not what they think is there. It’s hard! LOL!

This next one is the same objects, but I allowed myself to look at the object, look at the paper, lift my pencil, and erase, but no shading. This is contour drawing.

This next one could be considered a finished drawing, because it is shaded to give the illusion of form/three dimensions.

Anyway, I am glad to be able to say that I am back to making art. As I am typing this, I am looking out at the palm trees swaying in the breeze. The lizards are darting around. The Ibis are pecking around the yard. And the clouds are tempting me to go outside and stretch out on the ground to watch them. I will resist that temptation here in the land of fire ants. LOL!

 “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”

– Leonardo da Vinci